This invention relates to handheld floor sweepers and more particularly to a hand held floor sweeper having a plurality of sweeping brushes powered by an electric motor. The sweeping brushes are located on each side of the sweeper. The floor sweeper has an elongated handle that has a battery pack to supply power to the electric motor that provides the power to rotate the sweeping brushes. This invention is directed to the gaskets that keep hair and debris out of the gear housings mounted at each corner of the sweeper.
Handheld sweepers have been used in the past to pick up dust and small items from hard surfaces, such as wood or tile floors, and carpets having varying piles of various heights. One type of handheld floor sweeper that has been used extensively in the past is a manually pushed floor sweeper that is not powered by a motor. The handheld sweeper has brushes mounted on a shaft located in the sweeper head that contact the surface to be cleaned. The brushes rotate as the sweeper is pushed and pulled across the floor surface. The brushes rotate and the bristles sweep the loose material up into a dust canister or similar dust-receiving portion in the sweeper head. A problem with this type of floor sweeper is that it only picks up material in the forward or rearward direction as the user pushes or pulls the sweeper across the floor as the sweeper is designed for movement in just the forward or reward directions. The sweeper head does not rotate about its handle for movement in the left or right directions, nor does it easily change directions for cleaning under low overhanging objects such as under cabinets or furniture.
The invention disclosed herein is a floor sweeper which is extremely light and has a very low profile sweeper head. The floor sweeper head is mounted to an elongated handle by means of a universal pivot or universal joint. This allows the floor sweeper head to easily pivot about the handle in any direction for easily picking up loose materials under over hanging cabinets or under furniture. There is an electric motor mounted in the sweeper head that drives a plurality of shafts that have brushes mounted thereon on all four sides of the sweeper head. The shafts are drivingly interconnected at corners of the sweeper head by means of gears mounted in gear housings. Felt gaskets are mounted around the shafts in order to keep hair out of the gear housings. There is a rechargeable battery pack mounted on the elongated handle to provide power to the electric motor. Power is provided to the motor from the battery pack through the elongated handle and the universal pivot or universal joint. The brushes provide cleaning action in any direction, not just in the forward or reverse direction. The motor drives the brushes to direct the dust or loose material into the dust-receiving canister in the sweeper head. Furthermore there are brushes extending out from the sides of the sweeper head that reach into corners to sweep debris into the main brushes. All of the brushes are powered by the electric motor.